The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, has forecast “civil unrest” as a result of recent court decisions involving Christians. This was in response to Lord Justice Laws’ dismissal of an appeal by a Christian marriage guidance counsellor who was sacked for refusing to give advice to gay couples. The Guardian reported, Lord Justice Laws said legislation to protect views held purely on religious grounds could not be justified. He said it was an irrational idea “but it is also divisive, capricious and arbitrary”.

Our May 11th meeting will be a brain-storming session, as we make plans for events over the coming year, mainly for Humanist Week, beginning 21st June, when we’ve booked a display case at Ipswich Central Library for an exhibit. We’ll be in the lounge at Pinewood Hall, as usual.

The theme for the forum on May 11th 2010 was What on Earth are YOU doing?. SIFRE members from the Faith and Belief communities around Ipswich were asked to speak for not more than ten minutes about the activities, aspirations and needs of their particular communities. SIFRE hoped to be able to identify areas of common concern, areas for cross-faith co-operation, which will be mutually beneficial and where one community might be able to help or advise another on issues of common concern.

The Ceremonies Team keep in touch by email and phone between face-to-face meetings. We’re friends, we support one another, and we share information, observations and ideas. During on online discussion about films today, Sophie recommended a speech from a Dustin Hoffman film entitled. Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, aimed at fairly young children, with death as its theme. The passage Sophie particularly loves, “for it’s simplicity and dignity and honesty”, is the following:

Finalising plans for Humanist Week & 10-minute Topics. We’ll be deciding what to put in the display case we’ve booked at Ipswich Central Library for Humanist Week (starts 21st June). Then, if there’s time, it’ll be 10-Minute Topics; everyone writes a subject for discussion on a bit of paper, then they all get mixed up and drawn at random. Any bees in your bonnet this week?

International Humanist Day is on 21st June, the summer solstice. This year, British Humanists will be marking Humanist Week from 21st to 27th June with a variety of events. We’ll have a display in one of the cases at the entrance to Ipswich Central Library.

I’m not one for traipsing round stately homes, being of the opinion that once you have seen one Queen Anne chair and polished mahogany table you have seen them all. However, when the Woodbridge U3A group planned a visit to Down House the home of Charles Darwin I thought this might well be worth a visit. And indeed it was. The house is important because it was there that Darwin not only wrote his masterpiece, On the Origin of Species, but applied scientific reasoning and performed numerous experiments to confirm that his ideas were sound.